two cherries are fine chisels, just stay away from the pre polished sets. they may look pretty, but the polishing rounds over edges, as well as making it harder to flatten the flats for proper sharpening.

BTW stay away from the narex chisels, they make great scrapers, but not good chisels.

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

Try yard sales, ebay etc. I found some great ones at an estate sale of an old shipwright. No names on any of them but they sharpen and stay sharp (high carbon and hand forged). I’m up to 2”+ with some of these great buys. The old ones have a cone shaped opening at the end so that you can replace the wood handles you pound on… Just cause they’re not shiny doesn’t mean they’re a bad chisel…I also have a set I got from a hardware store called “Mechanics Brand”. Not bad for the $ that you can use for rough stuff. Irwin’s are also good. My point, get the best quality you can afford but don’t get blinded by the lights of advertised stuff. Just sayin’ ;0)

I know some here may disagree with this one; I went with the Marples/Irwin boxed set from Woodcraft. After flattening and sharpening they work very well. No, they are not perfect but they definitely fit my budget at the time and I still have not had a good reason to replace them.

-- "Everything that is great and inspiring is created by the individual who labors in freedom" -- Albert Einstein

If you want to buy new, I suggest that you take a look at Lie Nielsen. They might be a little bit more expensive, but you will have very little to do in the way of preparation for use when you receive them. I also like that they are a socket type handle design which is very durable.

That said, I own the Marples 4 pc set which has proven to be a pretty good set. It took a bit of time to flatten the backs and polish and hone them, but once that was done, they have given good service. Still my favorite chisels and the ones that I tend to reach for most often are a mismatched group of antique chisels that I have collected from various sources. I just think that they used better steel years ago than they use today. The steel is not as hard which makes them easier to sharpen. The steel is less brittle also, so less likely to break. Yet they still hold an edge nicely. The old Buck Bro chisels are good as well as the old Stanley 750 or 720 series are excellent as well.

Narex Chisels… Great tools for the price. Although useable out of the box, I spent about an hour flattening the backs and honing the bevels for the set of 6. Yeah, the handles may look like they came out of a high school woodshop but the are comfortable in my hands and don’t roll off my bench. Their blade thickness is a bit thinner than my older chisels, but this has not been an issue. Actually, for paring DTs, the slight flexibility is a benefit.

In the chisel shoot-out that FWW did in Oct2008 They liked the two cherries, but gave the recommendation for the Narex because they were better out of the box (Very Good vs Good) But they liked the ergonomics of the 2 cherries (very good vs good) The two cherries had thicker side flats which made them a little less ideal for tight dovetails. The two cherries was 3x more expensive than the Narex.

On the Footprint chisels the side flats were very thick (the thickest of the bunch) which means dovetails were more difficult. The Footprint beat out the Narex and the Two Cherries for ergonomics though.

One thing to consider, if you don’t need all four sizes RIGHT NOW, consider looking at buying just the one or two sizes you will use most. Maybe a 1/2” chisel or 3/8” chisel first. Depends on what you have in mind to be doing.

Long run, you pay a little more (assuming new chisels) but you spread out the cost over time AND if you find that you bought a dud or don’t like the handle or whatever, you can sell that one and buy your next choice.

Also with regard to the Narex chisels, I bought their mortise chisels and the handles while a good size and shape for me had too much lacquer for my taste. A little turpentine and some scrubbing and I took them down to bare wood. To me, that feels better. Not sure if their bench chisels are the same way.

Chisel handles seem to be a very personal thing. While I have a set of the blue handle Marples now I’ve got it on my list to start replacing them with either vintage or new socket handle chisels. The plan being that if I don’t like the handle I can very easily make my own. The Marples look like socket handles but as I understand it there is a short tang inside the plastic.